Working Group on International Research and Cooperation

Purpose and objectives

Activities

The Working Group is focussing at present on assuring effective interagency interaction with the major international global change research programs; with a series of regional global change research programs; with the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA); and, on a bilateral basis, with other leading countries involved in global change research, especially Japan. The Working Group is also presently providing interagency staff support for the Department of State and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in their development of bilateral international cooperation in climate change research.

The Working Group coordinates U.S. interagency support for the major international global change research programs: the World Climate Research Program (WCRP); the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP); the International Human Dimensions (of Global Environmental Change) Program (IHDP); and Diversitas, a newly emerging international program for research on biodiversity.

The Working Group provides oversight for U.S. participation in and support of international regional global change research programs in the Americas (the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and in Asia (the Asia-Pacific Global Environmental Research Program (APN). The Working Group also interacts on behalf of the USGCRP with the international System for Analysis, Research and Training (START) which, in turn, supports regional cooperation in other regions, such as central and south Asia and Africa.

The Working Group is working with the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) to promote improved cooperation in global change research in Africa. Planning is underway for a workshop late in 2002 or early in 2003 to consider needs and opportunities for such regional cooperation.

The Working Group staffs U.S. participation in IGFA which is currently led by the Assistant Director for Geosciences of National Science Foundation in her capacity as Chair of the SGCR. IGFA serves as a forum for exchange of information among national agencies that fund global change research in over twenty countries; it identifies issues related to such funding discusses options for resolving them; and then acts through its individual member agencies.

The Working Group is presently heavily involved in promoting and encouraging U.S.-Japan cooperation in global change research. Last year the Working Group coordinated U.S. participation in and support of three U.S.-Japan workshops in this area, the most important of which was the ninth annual major U.S.-Japan Workshop on global change research. The subject of this workshop was "carbon cycle management in terrestrial ecosystems"; the eighth workshop dealt with "health and the environment".

Finally, the Working Group has since last November actively supported the Department of State and OSTP in their planning for and organization of a series of bilateral activities directed at improving and expanding U.S. bilateral international cooperation in climate change research and technology. The Working Group has primarily compiled background documentation and assisted in assembling of U.S. Delegations and identification of lead U.S. scientists in the scientific areas selected for emphasis. The Working Group is presently assisting also in the follow-up of the first of the completed bilateral meetings.

Organization

The Working Group is established under the aegis of the Sub-Committee on Global Change Research (SGCR) of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) which is one of nine committees organized under the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

Member agencies are the Department of Energy (DOE); the Department of State (DOS); the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), both NOAA’s Office of Global Programs (OGP) and the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS); the National Science Foundation (NSF); the Office of Naval Research (ONR); the Smithsonian Institution (SI); the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The Working Group is chaired by Mr. Louis Brown of the National Science Foundation (eml: lbrown@nsf.gov; tel: 703-292-7856) and staffed by Mr. David Allen who is located at the USGCRP Office (eml:dallen@usgcrp.gov; tel: 202-419-3486).

For more information contact:

Mr. Lou Brown WG/IRC Chair Department of Geosciences National Science Foundation, Rm 1070 4201 Wilson Blvd Arlington, VA 22230 USA phone: (703) 292-7856 fax: (703) 292-9152 email:lbrown@nsf.gov

Mr. David Allen U.S. Global Change Research Program 1717 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Suite 250 Washington DC 20006 P: (202) 419-3486 F: (202) 223-3065 email:dallen@usgcrp.gov